BMW N47

The N47 is BMW’s 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel, built from 2007 to 2015. In most of the
world it is one of the most common BMW engines ever made — the 118d, 120d, 320d, 520d,
X1 and X3 — and in the United States it was never sold at all.

What the N47 is

A 2.0-litre inline-four diesel with an aluminium block, common rail direct injection and,
depending on output level, one or two turbochargers. It replaced the M47 and was itself replaced
by the B47 in 2014.

Its significance is volume rather than engineering. The 320d and 520d were, for years, the
default company car across much of Europe, and this is the engine in them.

Why it is not in our records

Our specification pages are built from United States government data — EPA fuel economy
and certification records, and Transport Canada vehicle specifications. A car not certified for
sale in North America appears in none of them.

The diesel BMWs that did reach the United States are six-cylinder cars: the
M57 in the 335d and X5 xDrive35d of 2009 to 2013, and a single
certification record for a 2018 540d with the B57. There has never
been a four-cylinder diesel BMW in the American market.

Our brochure archive is a United States archive for the same reason, so it holds nothing
describing this engine either.

The timing chain question

The N47 is searched for alongside its timing chain more than for anything else, and it would
be easy to write a paragraph confirming what everyone already believes. We are not going to,
and the reason is the same one that governs every engine page here.

Failure rates require a denominator: how many engines, over what mileage, how many failures.
No public dataset provides that for any BMW engine. The United States complaint database, which
is the source usually pressed into service, records complaints against a vehicle rather
than an engine — and for the N47 it does not apply at all, because none of these cars were
sold in the United States. There is not even a flawed dataset to misuse here.

What can be said honestly: the chain drive on this engine is at the rear of the block, which
makes access expensive if work is needed. That is a fact about the layout, not a prediction
about any particular car. Anything beyond it — a percentage, a mileage, a “known
failure rate” — is someone’s estimate presented as a measurement.

What we do not publish

No reliability rating, no power figures, no specification table. Nothing on this page comes
from a government record or a brochure, because none of them cover a car that was never sold in
the United States, and we flag that rather than dressing general description up as sourced
data.

Common questions

Which BMWs have the N47?

The 118d, 120d, 123d, 316d, 318d, 320d, 520d, X1 18d and 20d and X3 20d, in Europe and other
diesel markets, from 2007 to 2015. None were sold new in the United States.

Can I buy an N47 BMW in America?

Not one sold new here. American diesel BMWs are the six-cylinder
M57 cars — the 335d and X5 xDrive35d — and those are in
our specification records with full figures.

Is the N47 reliable?

We do not publish reliability verdicts on any engine, and for this one we could not even
attempt it: the United States complaint database does not cover cars that were not sold here.
See the section above for what can be said about the chain layout without inventing a
statistic.

What replaced the N47?

The B47, from 2014, part of BMW’s modular engine family. It was
not sold in the United States either.

Sources

None for this engine. Nothing here comes from EPA certification data, EPA fuel economy data,
Transport Canada records or a brochure in this archive, because none of those cover a car never
sold in the United States. The comparison with American diesel BMWs comes from our
specification pages, which name their sources individually.